Need pistol advice, fix up my Les Baer or buy used wad gun?

First topic message reminder :

I've been shooting bullseye with my Les Baer Concept III (stainless frame, blued slide) shooting with stock irons. I've been shooting my home cast 185 grain long nose SWC bullets, they look similar to a 200 grain H&G 68 profile. From a Random Rest my load groups 1.75-2.125 at 25 yards over 10 shots, not horrible but could be better. I've tried my buddies 185 button nose load but it doesn't feed well in my gun.

For next season I'd like to move to a red dot and try to shoot the 185 button nose bullets. I can't decide if I should spend the cash to add a sight base to my Les Baer and get it shooting button nose loads, possibly a bit of accurizing or if I should just sell it and keep an eye out for a gently used bullseye wad gun.

Christopher Miceli wrote:my Springfield custom shop was cheaper than a Baer

The ones ive seen for sale started at 2500.00 where did you purchase so guys can add it as another option.
Is this what you have, click on  "the bullseye Wadcutter"  its the model comparable to the Les Baer wad guns.
http://www.springfield-armory.com/custom/

1800 for ball gun 2200 for wadgun got mine end of 15, took 14 months for build.

It makes you wonder who proof reads SA adds. Did you read the part where the WC is available in "any" caliber suitable for a 1911 platform? You also get your choice of frame or rail mounted optics (twice). I know where my next 38 special WC is coming from.

Christopher Miceli wrote:1800 for ball gun 2200 for wadgun got mine end of 15, took 14 months for build.

Good price but still higher than a Baer wad gun ( by a little )... and these are in stock most always and have a 2''@50 yard guarantee too.

http://www.champchoice.com/store/Main.aspx?p=ItemDetailOptions&item=C45WCS

zanemoseley wrote:I've been shooting bullseye with my Les Baer Concept III (stainless frame, blued slide) shooting with stock irons. I've been shooting my home cast 185 grain long nose SWC bullets, they look similar to a 200 grain H&G 68 profile. From a Random Rest my load groups 1.75-2.125 at 25 yards over 10 shots, not horrible but could be better. I've tried my buddies 185 button nose load but it doesn't feed well in my gun.

For next season I'd like to move to a red dot and try to shoot the 185 button nose bullets. I can't decide if I should spend the cash to add a sight base to my Les Baer and get it shooting button nose loads, possibly a bit of accurizing or if I should just sell it and keep an eye out for a gently used bullseye wad gun.

Congratulations on finding a nice bullseye wad gun. My only question is why are you intent upon shooting button nose bullets, when you have had nothing but trouble with them and others have experienced the same?

Well my shooting buddy who shoots in the 2550 range loves the Magnus 185 grain button nose bullet, I've seen his ransom rest results and they look good, at 25 yards anyway. I've also got a 185 grain H&G 68 mold I will try out. I plan to do some ransom rest testing soon to see which shoots better in this new pistol.

DavidR wrote:Jerry what you and Jon say say is true, even if baer is built by a small crew and not a super mass produced factory like Taurus,SW Colt or others, and that a top gunsmith like either of you could better them in many ways. However please tell where the better option is? I think I can safely say neither one of you or KC or other top level gunsmith I know of will build a equal or better gun for someone  for 2 grand. If so I have never seen one. For the price point I stick by the fact the Les Baer beats all others in the 2k and below price range next would be Rock River at 2500.00. With all due respect everyone doesnt have 3500-6 grand to buy a wad gun and wait time from a top smith can be many months or years. Ive seen and tested many baer guns that will shoot right along side the best of them. Oh and I will throw this out there for the Range Officer fans myself included, the frame/slide and all internal parts of a baer gun are vastly superior to everything used to build the springfield RO, no offence meant , the fact is they could not sell one for 800.00 if it was

Dave,

We have had a good quantity of members on our shooting team spend good money fixing new Les Baers.  Typically a new barrel or the existing barrel refit, and a trigger job.  We have also had trouble with Mr. Baer and his lack of customer service.  Les' approach to correcting barrels was simply to refuse to fix it.  He opted to just tighten the slide to reduce the groups.  That is a temporary solution.  His other advice/offer was to "break in" the pistols by firing them some more   Because of that we no longer recommend his pistols. After our folks did several back and forth trips, even after speaking to Mr. Baer, they gave up.   I'm in no way saying every pistol is a lemon or not of quality, but there are some issues that have come up.

For those not wanting to pay/wait for a full custom build from a known Bullseye Gunsmith we recommend a Range Officer accurized by Jon, KC, Hallston, Salyer, etc. and other solid names.  If they insist on a new production 1911, we've seen good builds from Rock River and Springfield Custom.  Both occasionally need a trigger job and if the barrel isn't fit the best, Springfield will make it right and pays the shipping both ways.  Most folks end up with a Range Officer and are very happy with it.  The cost of a RO, with new fire control parts, and a Kart barrel is competitive with a Les Baer and has the backing of someone like KC, Jon, Dave, etc. behind it, and that's great insurance.

One thing is for sure I don't quite have as good of an image of Les Baer as I did last Spring when I bought my Concept III. I truly don't think my extractor was tuned right from the factory and led to much frustration especially when I started chasing the recoil springs which was obviously the wrong component. The trigger on this new Les Baer is a bit better than on my Concept III. Neither trigger is as good as the trigger on my Sig 38 super which was gutted and replaced with all top quality trigger components by Evolution Armory. If I hadn't stumbled on this deal on the Baer was gun is have Jon building me a pistol.

zanemoseley wrote:Well my shooting buddy who shoots in the 2550 range loves the Magnus 185 grain button nose bullet, I've seen his ransom rest results and they look good, at 25 yards anyway. I've also got a 185 grain H&G 68 mold I will try out. I plan to do some ransom rest testing soon to see which shoots better in this new pistol.

If you are shooting outdoors at 50 yds., you need a load that will group well at that distance, and the bullet seems to be the biggest determining factor in rather the load is accurate or not. Almost any load will shoot within the 10 ring at 25 yds. As a Marksman you only need a load that will group within 3.5 inches at 50 yards. If it does so, you know that any round not in the 10 ring is not because of faulty loads or the gun. As you climb the ladder, you may want to experiment to get a more accurate load, but right now your time is better spent working on the fundamentals rather than chasing for that laser accurate gun/ ammo combo. That is my 2 cents (from someone who climbed the ladder from outdoor Marksman to Master).

For now the matches I shoot at are 25 yards only even though it's an outdoor range with 50 yards total. 

I shot a match yesterday and the new pisol helped my scores by about 120 points, I used it for CF and 45. Funny thing is my 22 score sucked, did better on my 45 score than my 22 score, that's pretty unheard of for me. I ended up with a 2256.